The research project will enable data driven insights to build optimal, and vibrant neighbourhoods filled with life and activity.
With new machine learning and optimisation techniques, together with data on movement and spending patterns, demography and business data the project aims to understand what constitutes an optimal city floor. This will foster better decisions and collaboration between shops, restaurants and property companies which makes up the city floor.
Functionality enabled by the research will give shops, restaurants and service companies insights into where their business is best suited for success, maximising their profitability and drawing people and activity to the area. Through optimisation of the city floor, retail companies will also benefit from synergies with nearby business, and the inhabitants will in time have a better and more deliberate service offering in their neighbourhood.
Commercial real estate companies will understand their area and which retail tenant they should choose for their property. By giving property companies in the same area an objective insights, combined with research into a framework for collaboration they will be able to collaborate to build better and more economically sustainable neighbourhoods, with an optimal mix of retail tenants.
The research will increase revenue and profitability for a large part of the Norwegian economy, and will positively affect the people living and using the city through increased activity, better service offering and quality of life.
The DREAM project will establish an entirely new way of operating the retail commercial real estate market. The Plaace platform lets retail, hospitality and service businesses match their needs with available retail space. Supported by new tools enabled by the DREAM project, these businesses will be able to make smarter location decisions, generate more revenue and attract more customers. This benefits property companies owning retail space directly by increasing rent and property value.
Using AI and optimization techniques, the project will build algorithms for (i) evaluating the location-based performance of a business, (ii) finding good business mixes for a group of available locations and (iii) helping commercial real estate companies collaborate to build better commercial areas. These approaches will significantly improve the current market, reducing the risk of wrong.
The results will be prototyped and piloted in the Plaace platform, and tested and evaluated by participating partners, ensuring their real-life applicability and preparing for their availability to the sector at large.